The ICT division founded Startup Bangladesh-iDEA -- a national entrepreneurship platform which would enable our country to innovate faster, create new opportunities, develop technical skills, and help realise the vision of Digital Bangladesh.
Recently, it hosted a round table discussion called Startup Circle with local entrepreneurs, startup community builders, telco, academias, and development agencies that are actively working to promote entrepreneurship. Startup Dhaka was represented at the meeting with its management team, Fayaz Taher, Samad Miraly, and myself.
Since many different organisations are working in many different levels to promote entrepreneurship, the discussion stirred towards how everyone can contribute to create a bigger impact.
The Honourable Minister of State Zunaid Ahmed Palak presided over the discussion and emphasised the importance of creating a startup culture in Bangladesh that is based on knowledge and mutual respect. He highlighted the fact that the ICT ministry has developed Startup Bangladesh platform which will offer mentoring, funding, co-working spaces, marketing, and legal support to our entrepreneurs to help realise their visions.
He encouraged all the various partner organisations to come under the umbrella of Startup Bangladesh and work together to create a bigger impact.
The minister explained that to create a startup ecosystem, it requires many support programs, but it is also important to create the right kind of startup culture. While many people are working, he observed that not many people are working together and flow of information within the community is not encouraging.
Perhaps Startup Bangladesh can become the catalyst or the facilitator for the entire Bangladesh startup community, where everyone can come together to seek information, get support, and funding.
There are almost 22 organisations that are working in this space, and it’s about time that people start working together with full support from ICT ministry.
ICT has four pillars for Startup Bangladesh, namely connectivity, e-governance, human resource development, and ICT industry, which it believes will help create a strong ICT sector in Bangladesh.
Now is the time to build strong local brands, while the market is smaller and may seem unattractive to international brands
The minister cited two business examples from Bangladesh, the financial sector and garments industry. While both had international players in the beginning, the banking industry is currently dominated by local players. He questioned if in the next decade our local startups will become flagship companies in technology business or we will depend on the Ubers and Airbnb of the world.
He went on further saying that though the garments sector contributes significantly to our economy, it failed to produce a single brand like H&M, Zara, etc. The garments industry ended up being captive to the large brands and offered low prices as a competitive edge which, in the long run, is not sustainable.
He questioned everyone in the panel to answer the difficult question if we, as a nation, are fundamentally ready to face the future or we would rather handover the billion dollar ICT industry in the making.
In India, Uber and Ola (the homegrown company) are competing for market share in ride-share so is Flipkart against Amazon in e-commerce space. We don’t have too many strong local tech companies to take the fight to the global tech giants. So now is the time to build strong local brands, while the market is smaller and may seem unattractive to international brands.
The minister cited the example of Pathao, the local ride-sharing company that is giving Uber a run for their money, who had to change their strategy. Now Uber offers motorbike ride-sharing based on the local market demand.
Technically local entrepreneurs are more poised to win the local market as they have the advantage of knowing the home turf.
The minister reiterated that Bangladesh seeks to become an upper-middle–income country by 2021, which will ultimately create huge demand in the market for services. In order to take advantage of the upcoming demand, Startup Circle as a platform would bring like-minded people together to foster innovation.
In this process, the government’s job is only to facilitate through funding and providing co-working space while local partners will provide access to mentors and coaching.
The sole aim is to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and experience sharing through all these initiatives.
As Bangladesh moves towards middle income country, the reason for diversification of its economy is all the more important, the minister emphasised. As a country we must avoid that risk of not diversifying at all cost, so ICT is our next big economic diversification, to ensure the country’s continuous progress.
Mustafizur Rahman Khan is the CEO and founder of Startup Dhaka.
